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Do #ILookLikeAnEngineer?

Below is an excerpt of a post I published at Medium that addresses my experience with the #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement.

Over the weekend I noticed the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer appearing in my Twitter feed. In case you have yet to explore the topic on Twitter, the hashtag started with a recruiting campaign: specifically one poster featuring Isis Anchalee that has sparked a larger conversation around diversity in the Tech Community. In her Medium post, Ms. Anchalee describes her experience with the newfound attention, and with other both positive and negative. One question posed really stood out to me:

Do you not fit the “cookie-cutter mold” of what people believe engineers “should look like?”

With this one question, Isis Anchalee struck a chord with me and many other people who don’t fit the traditional, dare I say stereotypical, image of an Engineer. My answer was Yes. I do feel like I don’t fit the mold of what engineers “should” look like. Cue the hashtag: #ILookLikeAnEngineer.